‘Never scared of change’: B20 co-chair on giving back and how the MBA helped shape him

MXOLISI Mgojo is the 2022 AABLA business leader of the year. It’s the pinnacle of a four decade long multi-continental career in business that has seen him work as a software engineer, a banker and now for the last 21 years, in the minerals and renewable energy environment.

CEO of Exxaro Resources for the last six years, Mgojo was educated in the US, South Africa and the UK, with a BSc in computer science from Northeastern University in the USA, and an honours degree from what is today the University of Johannesburg. He’s a graduate of Wharton School of Business’s advanced management programme as well as Singularity University’s executive programme, but perhaps the degree he is most proud of is the MBA that he received from Henley in 2000.

“I’ve never been scared of change, I’ve actually lent into it,” he says. “I decided to do an MBA when I went into mining, because I needed to learn the management skills. I had great specialist skills, writing code for Unisys in the UK and doing investment banking for Société Générale, but I’d never run a team before. I’d always been responsible for my own output.”

The MBA and the ‘soft skills’ he learnt, he says, were invaluable for at first leading a marketing and logistics team of three including himself at Eyesizwe Coal and then successfully competing for the position of General Manager Base Metals and Industrial Minerals of the newly established Exxaro Resources. From there he was appointed head of the coal division.

“The MBA taught me how to build relationships. A lot of the work is done under pressure and in syndicates because not everyone has the same skills, so we had to learn to find solutions and teach the other members and learn from them.”

“You won’t find many MBA graduates who have done their degrees without relying on their syndicates. Coming into mining, I drew on exactly that principle. I was upfront about what I didn’t know and what I need to learn.”

It was a vital attribute for the future; when other mining companies did not see the opportunity to enter in the renewable energy sector, Sipho Nkosi and Mxolisi took up the opportunity. “I never saw myself as ever becoming a CEO, I’m an introvert. I saw Bab’Nkosi (the legendary Sipho Nkosi who became Exxaro’s CEO) as one. But Sipho said to me ‘you don’t have to be like anyone else, you just have to be the best version of yourself’.”

Inspired, he set about pursuing his fascination with change and especially as to why some iconic companies – like Kodak, Nokia, Blockbuster– had failed after being undisputed market leaders. As part of Exxaro’s executive team lead by Sipho Nkosi, he played an important role as far back as 2009 to transition Exxaro into a significant coal producer and a player in the renewable energy sector..

The other game changer for him was the vote of confident that the industry itself gave him, voting him president of the Minerals Council and then extending his tenure as he went out to defend their interests when certain ministers tried to interfere and work with them to break legislative logjams and find mutually beneficial solutions for the country and the industry.

On 3 June, 2022 he was named AABLA’s business leader of the year at a glittering function at Sun City in North West.  

“It was a total surprise. Our stakeholder relations department asked me to sign some forms some weeks back and I thought these were standard POPI (Protection of Personal Information Act) forms, so I didn’t give them another thought. Then all of a sudden, I found out I’d been nominated and that I was a finalist!”

Mgojo couldn’t believe he was one of the finalists in an African leadership competition.

What amazed him more, was to be nominated together with Ralph Mupita, the Group CEO of MTN. Mgojo was part of a finance team that provided the initial loans when MTN was founded in the mid 1990s. Today MTN has grown to become a telecoms powerhouse the length and breadth of Africa.

And then he’d discovered that he’d won.

“I thought it was a mistake. Then I thought, ‘God, you have a wonderful way of creating the greatest finale of a person’s working life’,” reflecting on the fact that he retires as CEO at the end of July.

When he finally steps down, he is planning to take a sabbatical for a year, ride the infamously tough Cape Epic mountain bike challenge, pick up his grandkids from school – and spend time with his wife. But when that time’s up, he wants to give back.

“It dawned on me when my grandson was born that I had a sense of responsibility. (My generation) created this mess. We have to be part of the solution to fix it.”

For Henley Africa dean and director Jon Foster-Pedley, Mgojo'’s victory is an incredible affirmation of precisely what the business school set out to achieve.

“It’s heart-warming – and humbling – to hear someone of Mxolisi’s status underscore the importance of his MBA to the trajectory of his incredible career, as he reflects on this wonderful and well-deserved accolade.

“His story is precisely why we teach the MBA: to unlock the incredible potential that lies within people and build the leaders who build the businesses, which in his case, literally build Africa.”